1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a glass breaking apparatus and, more specifically, to such a glass breaking apparatus which is capable of breaking large pieces of glass bottles or the like into smaller pieces for further disposition.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With increasing emphasis in recent years on energy conservation and environmental preservation, the collection and recycling of empty glass bottles has become an important factor in the conservation and preservation effort. The recycling of glass bottles has helped to reduce the presence of broken glass bottles strewn throughout and has lessened the energy requirement by the recycling of empty glass bottles for future use. Numerous states and localities have adopted glass conservation programs that require the recycling of glass bottles.
Unfortunately, the lack of an efficient and economical system to recover and reuse glass bottles has largely caused a tremendous waste of recoverable bottles, since currently it is often easier and more economical, in the short term, to discard the bottles, instead of recycling them. Additionally, the recycling of bottles poses numerous problems in ascertaining whether a particular bottle is refundable; sorting refundable bottles by brand and color; and determining the value of the refund to be given by the store to the customer. Often, stores must either hire extra employees for these particular time consuming tasks or allow customers to return the bottles on an honor system, in which the customer is trusted to report the correct amount of the bottles he has returned.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,641, entitled Glass Bottle Collection And Crushing Apparatus by Bruce H. DeWoolffson et al. and patented on Mar. 4, 1986, includes a reverse vending machine for the unit recovery of empty glass bottles. The apparatus is quick and convenient to use and will save substantial time and expense on the part of the retailer to provide refunds for the refundable bottles to the customers. Due to this increased ease in usage and decrease in operational cost, the reverse vending machine allows for the attainment of environmental and energy conservation goals in an efficient and economical manner.
The reverse vending machine preselects only those bottles that are refundable prior to accepting the offered bottle into the machine. Unacceptable and non-refundable bottles are recognized by the apparatus and not processed further. Once accepted, the refundable bottle is separated by color and crushed for easy storage. The reverse vending machine eliminates a need for having a store or retailer use employees to identify and sort the refundable bottles and give refunds to the customers. Rather, the reverse vending machine automates these previously manually performed tasks so that the customer, unaided, can return and receive a refund for glass bottles.
Additionally, the reverse vending machine retains a count of the different kinds of bottles it has received and, therefore, it can provide a detailed description of the types or brands of bottles returned to the store. The refunded bottles are separated by color, crushed, and stored in the reverse vending machine to make it easy for the glass of the bottles to be recovered for recycling. By crushing the returned bottles, the reverse vending machine lessens the space requirements that the store must allocate for handling the returned bottles and, thereby, allows stores to use this valuable space for other more economical uses.
The reverse vending machine includes accepting means having two panels which together form a V-shaped base portion of the bottle access area. The accepting means further includes opening means such as a solenoid and latch mechanism, associated with each panel for tilting the associating panel inwardly toward the crushing means disposed therebelow to allow a bottle, placed on the base portion to fall, inwardly to the crushing means. Depending on the color of the bottle, the preselection means activates the proper one of the solenoid and latch mechanism to cause the attached panel to tilt inwardly, thereby allowing the bottle to fall by gravity into the crushing means.
In the reverse vending machine disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,641, the crushing means includes a plurality of rotating breaking bars positioned beneath each panel to receive the refundable bottles deposited by the accepting means and to crush the received bottle into glass cullet. Preferably, each crushing means includes a horizontal shaft, which extends between the front and back walls of the crushing means housing, and a plurality of breaking bars outwardly extending from the horizontal shaft. The breaking bars are rotated by a drive mechanism which is actuated by the preselection means. The storage means can include a collection hopper positioned below each of the crushing means so that the glass crushed by that particular crushing means will fall by gravity into its particular hopper.
While the machine described hereinabove has satisfactorily collected, sorted and crushed glass bottles in an appropriate manner for collection in a container below the crushing means, a change in the collection process and method has resulted in the recognition of some problems. Specifically, the preferred improved apparatus for reducing, collecting and storing of the glass bottles includes a vacuum or suction means disposed below the apparatus for the removal of the pieces of glass bottles for disposition and collection at a remote location. It has been found that for proper suctioning or vacuuming of such pieces of glass, the size of the pieces is critical. While the configuration described hereinabove does reduce the glass bottles to many pieces, some of the pieces are relatively large and are not easily transported through the vacuum or suction means. The rotating breaking bars result in a significant number of relatively large pieces and the apparatus, therefore, needs some means for further reducing these large pieces to insure that they are sufficiently small for movement through the vacuum or suction means.
It should be noted that a basic glass breaking machine similar to that included in the apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,641, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,151,814. However, the configuration employed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,151,814 would also be incapable of assuring that the glass bottles broken thereby would include pieces of glass which are sufficiently small for transportation by the vacuum or suction means.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,010,665 discloses a crushing apparatus which might be employed to further reduce the size of the pieces of glass. However, any attempt to directly crush glass in a chamber such as disclosed therein would be complicated and would not be particularly adaptable for use with the crushing means of the apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,641.
Accordingly, the improved apparatus for reducing empty glass bottles and the collecting of the glass pieces should include means which will insure the further reduction of the pieces of glass to facilitate their transportation through the vacuum or suction means. Accordingly, a review of various prior art devices which might be employed for this purpose and which proport to crush containers or break up glass containers should be considered.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,489,354 discloses a mechanism for crushing, breaking and fragmenting expendable frangible or metallic receptacles or containers to reduce the same to rubble requiring a minimum of temporary storage space prior to ultimate disposition. However, there is no assurance of the size of the pieces of glass bottles broken thereby. For example, the series of rollers disposed therein include blades which are intended to cooperate to reduce the glass bottles to pieces of glass. However, the cooperation of such blades does not prevent the formation of relatively large pieces which may be disposed axially, generally parallel with the rollers, for undisturbed passage therebetween. This limitation is understandable when it is recognized that the device of U.S. Pat. No. 3,489,354 is also adapted for the flattening of metal cans and the like. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,504,621 is primarily configured for the crushing of metal cans or the like. The device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,504,621 includes long, longitudinally disposed bars which extend at a significant height above the basic cylindrical surface of the rollers therein. Such longitudinally disposed bars having the relatively large height above the cylindrical surface of the roller would not prevent large pieces of glass from collecting longitudinally along the cylindrical outer surface of the roller as a glass bottle or the like is reduced thereby.
A number of devices employ crushing rollers which might, when first considered, include configurations which could cooperate with the crushing wheels of the device of U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,641 to insure the reduction of the glass bottles to sufficiently small pieces for suctioning or vacuuming for disposition at a remote location. However, it has been found that simply reducing the glass bottles to the smallest possible pieces will not necessarily facilitate vacuuming and suctioning to a remote location. For example, while it is preferable to reduce the glass bottles to small pieces, it is not desirable to crush or pulverize the glass to produce fine granular particles. Such fine, granular particles are relatively difficult to transport through the vacuum or suction means, it has also been found that such fine particles are generally undesirable for transportation and have not been acceptable for some glass recycling processes. Some facilities in the glass recycling business clearly prefer small, discrete pieces of glass rather than any fine, pulverized pieces which could occur without proper means being employed for reducing the glass to such small pieces.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,181,660 and 1,598,364 include crushing rollers having complicated pointed spikes which are threaded to the cylindrical surface of the rollers. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 697,311 includes an array of oddly shaped spikes which provides no space between the extended end thereof and the cylindrical surface of the adjacent roller. As a result, there is no assurance that the spiked rollers of these three prior art devices are particularly adapted to prevent the formation of fine, granular particles of glass when larger pieces of glass are broken thereby. On the other hand, U.S. Pat. No. 2,919,075 includes a simplified spike configuration but, with the utilization of only one cylinder, there is no assurance that larger pieces of glass will be further reduced thereby.
Similarly, while the apparatus for crushing cans disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,826,796 includes a simplified array of extensions on the cylindrical surfaces of the rollers thereof, there is no assurance that such extensions on the rollers will properly reduce the relatively large pieces of glass bottles directed thereto. Specifically, the relative dimensions of the extensions and the relative disposition of such extensions is such that large pieces of glass could be disposed longitudinally between the extensions to simply pass between the rollers without proper reduction to the smaller pieces of glass.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,893,030 would appear to accommodate many types of glass but includes movable, impact rollers which are very complicated and would appear to be quite expensive to provide and maintain. A number of other devices, including those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,749,004 and 3,951,059, employ complicated crushing configurations which are clearly not adaptable for use within the reverse vending machine of the type described hereinabove. Specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 3,749,004 includes rollers which move in opposite directions and appear to require a resilient mounting means for the passage of material therethrough. Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 3,951,059 discloses a series of reducing rollers which can be selectively axially separated but basically include a configuration which would cause glass passing therethrough to be reduced to fine, granular particles in a manner which is undesirable for further disposition and recycling.
European Patent No. 248,198 and Offenlegungsschrift No. 3,829,380 disclose complicated processes for the reduction of material deposited therein. These processes are clearly not adaptable for use in a reverse vending machine of the type generally disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,641.
Accordingly, there remains a need for providing a means within such a reverse vending machine which is capable of further reducing larger pieces of glass produced by the crushing means thereof into acceptable smaller pieces for vacuuming and suctioning to a remote location. The preferred reducing means should not produce fine, granular pieces of glass which may not be generally acceptable for further processing at some recycling facilities.